Draconic Aura Feat

[Auramis]

The wording for the special information section of this feat states, "if you are of the dragonblood subtype, the bonus of your draconic aura improves with your class level. The aura grants a +2 bonus at 7th level, a +3 bonus at 14th level, and a +4 bonus at 20th level. You can select this feat more than once. Each time you select it, you gain the ability to project another aura of your choice (but not more than one aura at a time)."

Problem here? "Class level." This wording confuses the players in my house, as it doesn't specifically state any class that it scales from. My Dungeon Master took this to mean that it scales off your total class levels (not counting any racial hit dice). If that were the case, wouldn't it simply state character level? I like to think of it scaling off character level and class level is a typo, but there's a part of me that also thinks it means to scale off the highest class level of your classes. I just don't know.

I always enjoy getting multiple opinions. What do you all think?

[The Viscount]

I would rule it as being dependent on character level. As a feat that functions regardless of class, it would be pointless for it to be dependent on class level since, as you mentioned, it doesn't mention any specific class. Furthermore, I don't think it has any precedent. I don't think I've seen any feats that are dependent on class level and don't specify the class (*cue playground entering to give me examples of such a feat). It's seems likely to me that it's a copy/paste error.

On a different note, mind if I add this to the dysfunctional rules thread?

[Auramis]

If you want, go for it. xD

Thanks for the response.

[Curmudgeon]

It looks like they're going for *almost* character level, but excluding racial hit dice. So just the totals of all your class levels.

You're right that this is confusing. "Class level" is almost always used in reference to levels in one particular class.

[Auramis]

It looks like they're going for *almost* character level, but excluding racial hit dice. So just the totals of all your class levels.

You're right that this is confusing. "Class level" is almost always used in reference to levels in one particular class.

Thanks for the response, mate. We've decided we're going to go with this reading of the RAW for that feat. Doesn't make sense that it would state a class level without specifying anything, so it didn't make sense to wing something.

[Red Fel]

As I recall, the Draconic Auras, in addition to being a feat, are a class feature of Dragon Shaman (from, if I recall, PHB II).

My instinct says that the "class levels" to which the feat refers are Dragon Shaman levels. But that would make no sense to tack onto the feat, which features separately in Dragon Magic, since the Shaman gets them, as I mentioned, as a class feature. I'm guessing that the language "class levels" is likely a sloppy copypasta job.

Short version: I'd go with the "totals of all your class levels" answer, but this is likely the source of confusion.

[Chronos]

You could almost read it as "levels in whatever class gave you the dragonblood subtype", except that there are a ton of ways to gain that subtype other than classes (more ways than there are to get it from a class, I think).

Personally, I'd just say that it's got to be a typo, since it makes no sense as-is, and that the thing it's most likely to be a typo for is "character level". If they meant "Total HD other than racial HD", or something like that, they should have explained themselves a lot better, since I don't think that's a concept that ever shows up anywhere else in the rules.

[magwaaf]

As I recall, the Draconic Auras, in addition to being a feat, are a class feature of Dragon Shaman (from, if I recall, PHB II).

My instinct says that the "class levels" to which the feat refers are Dragon Shaman levels. But that would make no sense to tack onto the feat, which features separately in Dragon Magic, since the Shaman gets them, as I mentioned, as a class feature. I'm guessing that the language "class levels" is likely a sloppy copypasta job.

Short version: I'd go with the "totals of all your class levels" answer, but this is likely the source of confusion.

i've been playing a dragon shaman in our game for 2 years (new version) and i could not tell you how i would make this work

[Talionis]

Personally, I'd just say that it's got to be a typo, since it makes no sense as-is, and that the thing it's most likely to be a typo for is "character level". If they meant "Total HD other than racial HD", or something like that, they should have explained themselves a lot better, since I don't think that's a concept that ever shows up anywhere else in the rules.

I would rule it to be Character Level and a typo. But I could see people by RAW saying without character levels it would be stuck at just +1.